Apparatus and method of ubiquitous context-aware agent based on sensor networks

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for context awareness by detecting intentions of a user in the ubiquitous environment using context information which is created by analyzing real world data collected from sensors are provided. The apparatus is configured of a sensor platform, a context-aware agent and a service provider. The sensor platform collects data of real world and transmits the collected data to the context-aware agent. The context-aware agent integrates the data of real world from the sensor platform, and stores and manages context information according to the integrated data. The service provider automatically controls objects to perform necessary operations to provide a predetermined intelligent services according to the context information received from the context-aware agent.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. Section 371, of PCTInternational Application Number PCT/KR2006/004186, filed Oct. 16, 2006and Korean Application No. 10-2005-0118422 filed Dec. 6, 2005 in Korea,the contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a sensor network in a ubiquitousenvironment, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method forcontext awareness by detecting intentions of a user in the ubiquitousenvironment using context information which is created by analyzing realworld data collected from sensors.

BACKGROUND ART

In a ubiquitous environment, all objects (e.g., homes, offices,buildings, telematics and artificial intelligent robots) are connectedtogether through a communication network, and each of the objectsperforms dedicated functions by exchanging information about a targetobject to provide a context-aware service for the target object.Generally, a ubiquitous service denotes all of services provided in theubiquitous environment.

In the information technology (IT) generation, a human learns acomputing technology to use available objects such as computers,electric appliances and communication devices. That is, the computingtechnology is a simple tool that improves productivity. Moreover, acomputing technology in the ubiquitous generation learns a human tointelligently provide the related services according to context of theusers.

Such a ubiquitous service must be provided based on context of a user,which is analyzed and detected by a high intelligent level ofcontext-aware technology. If not, the ubiquitous service becomes aharmful technology giving inconvenience to the human although a user isin the ubiquitous environment that is configured of objects having asuperior computing power and allows the user to access the computeranytime and anywhere. That is, the ubiquitous environment must providehigh intelligent aware-service by understanding users' intentions anddetecting users' context. Such an environment providing high intelligentaware-service is called as a ubiquitous intelligence.

There are three essential technologies required to embody the ubiquitousintelligence.

The first essential technology is a sensing information based contextaware/decision technology. The sensing information based contextaware/decision technology analyzes sensed information about objectsaround a user, determines whether the sensed information is related tothe users' intention based on the analysis result and generates eventsignals in response to a service request.

The second technology is an autonomic computing technology. Theautomatic computing technology enables computers to automatically managethemselves in order to minimize participants of user.

The third technology is a self-growing engine that enables theubiquitous environment to be automatically evolved by self-learning andgrowing.

Among the essential technologies, the context aware/decision technologywas spotlighted as the most important technology for the ubiquitousintelligence environment.

Conventionally, the context aware/decision technology was mostlydeveloped to provide a simple service based on limited contextprocessing, for example, a positioning based service to a cellular phoneuser in a wireless environment or a user in vehicle in a mobileenvironment. That is, a context aware/decision technology was notdeveloped for the ubiquitous intelligence environment.

Since a proper context aware/decision technology is not applied to theubiquitous environment, a ubiquitous service may be provided based oninsufficient, incorrect and inaccurate users' environment, context andintention. Therefore, the ubiquitous service may become a harmfulservice giving inconvenience to the user.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus andmethod of a ubiquitous context-aware agent based on sensor networks thatsubstantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations anddisadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of aubiquitous context-aware agent based on sensor networks and a methodthereof for automatically providing a service according to users'context and intention through creating context data by analyzing andintegrating real world data collected from sensors, storing and managingthe created context data in a context storage, inferring users'intentions based on the context data and providing the service accordingto the context data and the intention of the user.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

Technical Solution

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, anapparatus of a ubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensor network,the apparatus includes:

-   -   a sensor platform for collecting data of real world and        transmitting the collected data to a context-aware agent;    -   the context-aware agent for interpreting and integrating the        data of real world from the sensor platform, and storing and        managing context information according to the interpreted and        integrated data; and    -   a service provider for receiving the context information from        the context-aware agent, and automatically performing operations        according to the received context information,    -   wherein the context-aware agent includes a context interpreter        for receiving the collected data from the sensor platform and        interpreting the received data to be viewable to a human and a        computer; an integrator for receiving the interpreted context        information from the context interpreter and integrating the        received context information in a predetermined format; a space        manager for receiving the interpreted context information from        the context interpreter and detecting users' intention with        reference to a relation between the users' movement and static        objects in a predetermined space; a home map manager for        receiving the interpreted context information from the context        interpreter, and displaying current states of a real world to        the user using the interpreted context information; a context        storage for storing information transferred from the context        integrator, the space manager and the home map manager, and        outputting the stored information in response to the request;        and a context manager for receiving the predetermined format of        the integrated context information from the context integrator        and managing the context information stored in the context        storage.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided amethod of context-awareness using a ubiquitous context-aware agent basedon a sensor network including: a) detecting sensing-data related to areal world collected through a sensor platform, and transforming thesensing-data to context information by analyzing a meaning of thesensing-data; b) determining whether a value of the transformed contextinformation is in a normal range or not if the type of the transformedcontext information is an environmental context; c) setting an urgentflag, storing corresponding context information and transferring thecontext information to a service provider if the value of thetransformed context information is not in the normal range; d)integrating context information, storing corresponding contextinformation, filtering the stored context information and transmittingthe filtered context information to a service provider if the value ofthe transformed context information is in the normal range; e) analyzinga relation between a moving object and a static object if the type ofthe transformed context information is a position context, detecting anintentions of a user according to a position, and determining whetherit's value is in a normal range or not; and f) integrating contextinformation, storing corresponding context information, filtering thestored context information and providing the filtered contextinformation to a service provider if the value is in the normal range.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method of inferring a position context in a context-aware method usinga ubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensor network, including:a) determining a type of an object through monitoring contextinformation in real time, and creating an object model and an objectarea model if the type of the object is a static object; b) detecting aqualitative state if the type of the object is a moving object in theoperation a) or if the object model and the object area model arecreated in the operation a); c) generating a qualitative state messagebased on the detected qualitative state and storing the generatedqualitative state message; d) generating an object relation message byinferring an object relation using the qualitative state message andstoring the generated object relation message; and e) generating asemantic model using the stored object relation model, generating asemantic model message according to the generated semantic model andstoring the semantic model message.

The present invention relates to a method of context-awareness bycreating context data through analyzing various data such as voltage,temperature, humidity, noise, acceleration, electromagnetic field andcomputing power which are collected from sensors, integrating thecreated context data in a predetermined format, and detecting users'contexts and inferring users' intentions based on the position in theubiquitous environment using the context data.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

Advantageous Effects

The apparatus and method for ubiquitous context-aware based on a sensornetwork allows the real-time service according to the object and thecontext thereof by analyzing and integrating real world data collectedfrom the sensors.

Furthermore, the apparatus and method for ubiquitous context-awarenessbased on the sensor network allows a computer program to provide acontext-aware service according to the users' intention and context byexpressing the position and the direction information collected from thesensor in real time as the semantic context in a terminological logicformat through hierarchical inference.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present invention. Thus,it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus of a ubiquitouscontext-aware agent based on a sensor network according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a software configuration of aubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensor network according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of context awareness based on asensor network in ubiquitous environment according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of inferring an intention related to a positioncontext performed in a space managing process in a method of contextawareness using a ubiquitous context-aware agent based on as sensornetwork according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a storage space for storing environment context data in anapparatus of a ubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensor networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a storage space for storing an object context in anapparatus of a ubiquitous context agent based on a sensor networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows a transmitting message in a qualitative state context-awarelayer in a ubiquitous context agent based on a sensor network accordingto an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 shows a transmitting message in a layer of recognizing an objectrelation in a ubiquitous context agent based on a sensor networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus of a ubiquitouscontext-aware agent based on a sensor network according to an embodimentof the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus of ubiquitous context-aware agentincludes: a sensor platform 101 for collecting data of real world andtransmitting the collected data to a context-aware agent 104; acontext-aware agent 104 for analyzing and integrating the collected datafrom the sensor platform 101, storing context data according to theanalyzed and integrated data and managing the stored context data; and aservice provider 111 for receiving the service context information fromthe context-aware agent 104 and controlling objects to perform necessaryoperations to provide a predetermine service according to the receivedservice context information.

The sensor platform 101 includes a sensor node 102 for collecting realworld data, and a sensor coordinator 103 for transmitting the collecteddata to the context-aware agent 104. Herein, the sensor node 102 may beconfigured in various forms to collect the real world data.

The context-aware agent 104 includes: a context interpreter 105 forreceiving real world data from the sensor coordinator 103 andinterpreting the received data to be recognizable by a human and acomputer; a context integrator 106 for receiving the interpreted contextdata and integrating the received data to a predetermined format; aspace manager 107 for receiving the interpreted context data from thecontext interpreter and inferring an intention of a user by analyzing arelationship of the movement of the user and static objects in apredetermined space; a home mapping manager 108 for receiving theanalyzed context data from the context interpreter 105 and displayingstates of real world for a user using the analyzed context data; acontext storage 110 for storing information from the context integrator106, the space manager 107 and the home map manager 108 and outputtinginformation in response to a request; and a context manager 109 forreceiving the integrated context data in a predetermined format from thecontext integrator 106 and managing the stored information in thecontext storage 110.

The context integrator 106 also transfers information about a servicestate to a service provider 111. That is, the context integrator 106transfers a context requiring a predetermined service among theintegrated contexts to the service provider 111 in order toautomatically provide a predetermined service.

As described above, the space manager 107 infers the users' intentionbased on the analyzed relationship between the users' movement and thestatic objects in the predetermined space. For example, if a user walksto a switch of light in a dark room, the space manager 107 recognizesthe users' intention to turn the light based on the analyzing therelationship between the users' movement and the static object which isthe switch of light.

The home map manager 108 displays the ubiquitous space such as a digitalhome, an office, a building or a telemetric, and adds, deletes orupdates objects in the ubiquitous space according to the context,dynamically.

The service provider 111 receives information about a context requiringthe predetermined service from the context integrator 106, understandsthe intention of the user through analyzing the relationship between thereceived and analyzed context about users' movement and the staticobject, and automatically provides the predetermined service based onthe inferred users' intention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a software configuration for aubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensor network according to anembodiment of the present invention.

Herein, blocks of the software configuration for the ubiquitouscontext-aware agent shown in FIG. 2 may be embodied as hardware blocksof a ubiquitous context-aware agent.

Referring to FIG. 2, the software configuration of the ubiquitouscontext-aware agent is correspondent to the context-aware agent shown inFIG. 1. That is, the software configuration of the ubiquitouscontext-aware agent according to the present invention includes acontext interpreting process 203 as the context interpreter 105, a spacemanaging process 204 as the space manager 107, a home map managingprocess 206 as the home map manager 108, a context managing process 207for the context manager 109 and a context integrating process 205 forthe context integrator 106. The software configuration of the ubiquitouscontext-aware agent further includes a context-aware connection managingprocess 202 for storing information about connections to externaldevices and an agent control process 201 for generally controlling theentire software configuration.

The context-aware agent control process 201 observes messages receivedfrom a sensor platform 101 and a service providing unit 111 connectedthrough the context-aware connection managing process 202 performsoperations based on the observing result.

The messages from the sensor platform 101 to the context-aware agentcontrol process 201 include environment data and position data. Thecontext interpreting process 203 interprets the environment data to beviewable to a human and a computer, creates context data based on theinterpreting result and transmits the created context data with anurgent flag to the service provider 111 through the connection managingprocess 202 if the interpreted data exceeds a normal range. As a result,a predetermined service is automatically provided to a user.

If the context-aware agent controlling process 201 receives the positiondata from the sensor platform 101, the context-aware agent controllingprocess 201 extracts three-dimensional coordinates (X, Y, Z) of anmoving object by analyzing the meaning of the position data, analyzing arelationship between the moving object and previously-stored informationof static objects, and transmits the analyzed relationship to the spacemanaging process 204 to infer the intention of the moving object basedon the analyzed relationship.

The space managing process 204 detects a comparative state of the staticobject and the moving object based on the position data and thedirection data transferred from the context-aware agent controllingprocess 201, defines a position relation between the static object andthe moving object based on a time, and infers the intention of themoving object's movement using rules made based on the characteristicsof the static object.

The context integrating process 205 integrates the interpreted contextsfrom the context-aware agent controlling process 201 to thepredetermined format data. The integrated data is transmitted to thehome map managing process 206 to display the integrated data through thecontext-aware agent controlling process 201. Also, the integrated datais transferred to the context managing process 207 to store theintegrated data in the context storage 110 through the context-awarecontrolling process 201.

The message transmitted from the service provider 111 to thecontext-aware agent controlling process 201 is a response to the urgentmessage transmitted by the context-aware agent 104 or messages requiringa predetermined service. If the response message is not normal, apreviously-transmitted message is retransmitted to retry performing ofautomated service.

In the software configuration according to the present embodiment shownin FIG. 2, each of the processes denotes a logical software unit, and aninter-process communication or a call-function is used to communicatebetween the processes.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a method of context awareness based on asensor network in ubiquitous environment according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, data transmitted from the sensor platform 101 isobserved in operation S301. Then, the meaning of the data is analyzed inoperation S302, and the analyzed meaning is interpreted to context datawhich is a format of information to be viewable by a human and acomputer. Herein, the data observed through the sensor platform 101 is asensing data and the sensing data expresses contexts as temperature,voltage and coordinate. Such sensing data are only numerical values. Thenumerical values of the sensing data are transformed to the context datato be recognized by the human and the computer.

After transforming, a type of the context data is verified in operationS303. If the type of the context data is an environment context, itdetermines whether a value of corresponding context is in a normal rangeor not in operation S304.

If the value of corresponding context is out of the normal range inoperation S304, an urgent flag is set in operation S305, thecorresponding context data is transformed to a predetermined format inoperation S306 and transmitted to the context manager 109 and theservice provider 111 to store the context data in operation S307 andS308. The service provider provides a proper context-aware service inreal time.

The predetermined format may be a message format exchanged between thecontext-aware agent and the context manager or between the context-awareagent and the computer program providing a service. Such a format may bemodified or changed in various forms according to types of contexttransmitted from the sensors.

If the value of corresponding context data is in the normal range inoperation S304, context data form various sensors are integrated inoperation S309 and the integrated context is transmitted to the home mapmanager in operation S310 and the home map manager displays theintegrated context data in a form of a graphic user interface (GUI).

After transforming to the predetermined format data in operation S311,it is transmitted to the context manager 109 in operation S312 andstored in the context storage 110.

The integrated context data is filtered in operation S313. If theintegrated context data requires a predetermined service, the integratedcontext data is transmitted to the service provider 111 in operationS308 to automatically provide a corresponding service in real time.

If the type of the transformed context data is a position context inoperation S303, the relationship between the static object and themoving object is analyzed in operation S314, the analyzing result istransmitted to the space manage process 204 in operation S315 to inferthe intention of the moving object. In order to infer, three steps ofinferring operation are performed as follows. The comparative statesbetween the static object and the moving object are analyzed based onthe analyzed position information and direction information. Then, aposition relation between the moving object and the static object isdefined based on a time. Finally, the intention of the moving object'smovement is inferred based on rules made based on characteristics of thestatic object. Then, the inferred intention is transmitted to theservice provider 111 in operation S308 to use the inferred intention forproviding the related service.

The analyzed position context may require a service having a value outof the normal range, for example, a user enters a room and requires aservice to turn on the light of the room. Then, an urgent flag is set inoperation S305 and the context is transformed to a predetermined formatin operation S306 and transmitted to the context manager and the serviceprovider 111 in operation S307 and S308 to stored the correspondingcontext and the provide a corresponding service in real time.

The predetermined format may be a message format exchanged between thecontext-aware agent and the context manager or between the context-awareagent and the computer program providing a service. Such a format may bemodified or changed in various forms according to types of contexttransmitted from the sensors.

If the three-dimension position context is in the normal range inoperation S304, the contexts collected from the various sensors areintegrated in operation S309, transmitted to the home map manager inoperation S310 and displayed in a forma of graphic user interface (GUI)through the home map.

After transforming to the predetermined format in operation S311, it istransmitted to the context manager 109 to store it in the contextstorage 110.

The integrated context is filtered in operation S313. If the filteredcontext is a context requiring a predetermined service, it istransmitted to the service provider 111 in operation S308 to performnecessary operations to automatically provide a predetermined service inreal time.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of inferring an intention related to a positioncontext performed in a space managing process in a method of contextawareness using a ubiquitous context-aware agent based on as sensornetwork according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, contexts of the context analyzing process 203 isobserved in real time in operation S401 and a type of the context isanalyzed in operation S402.

If the type of the context is a static object in operation S402, thecontext is transmitted to an object model generator in operation S403and the object model generator creates an object model and an objectspace model in operation S404. Herein, the object model generatorcreates the object model and the object area model with reference toinformation related to types and sizes of a real static object and afunctional area of the static object which are previously stored. Theobject model expresses a position and a size of the sensed static objectand the object space model expresses a position and a size of thefunctional area of the sensed static object.

The created object model and object space model are transmitted to aqualitative state detector in operation S405 and a qualitative state ofthe models are detected in operation S407.

If the type of the object is the moving object in operation S402, thecontext is transmitted to the qualitative state detector in operationS406 and the qualitative state of the context is detected in operationS407.

The qualitative state is detected by comparing the position informationof a moving object transmitted in real time with reference to the objectmodel and the object area model of the static object.

If the qualitative state between the moving object and the static objectis changed, a predetermined format of the qualitative state message iscreated and the qualitative state message is stored in the contextstorage 110 in operation S408.

The created qualitative state message is transmitted to an objectrelation inferring unit for inferring the object relation in real timein operation S409. The object relation is inferred based on thequalitative states such as approach, reside and leave in operation S410.Then, the predetermined format of the relation message is created usingposition information such as on, front, rear, left and right, and thecreated relation message is stored in the storage in operation S411.

The object relation message is transmitted to a semantic model inferringunit in operation S412. The semantic model inferring unit infers asemantic model with reference to a semantic model knowledge baseincluding rules previously defined based on the characteristics of thestatic object in operation S413. Accordingly, the service provider 111generates the context data to provide meaningful context-aware services.Such a context is created as a predetermined format of a semantic modelmessage and the created semantic model message is stored in the contextstorage 110 in operation S414.

The semantic model message is transmitted to the service provider 111 inoperation S415. Therefore, the proper context-aware service may beprovided to the user in real time. After providing the service, thesemantic model message may be used as a data for self-learning.

FIG. 5 shows a storage space for storing environment context data in anapparatus of a ubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensor networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the storage space for storing environment contextdata according to the present embodiment includes an environmentalcontext storage space and an object context storage space. Such acontext storage stores and manages context data according to a type of acontext which is analyzed and integrated after received from the sensorplatform.

The environmental context storage space stores items of the context suchas a message identification 501, a message type 502, an objectidentification 503, a voltage 504, a temperature 505, a luminance 506, asound 507, an acceleration X 508, an acceleration Y 509, anelectromagnetic field X 510, an electromagnetic field Y 511 and a time512. Other items may be added to the environment context storage spaceaccording to additional sensors.

Herein, the message identification 501 is a value identifying themessages itself by the class.

The message type 502 is used to classify the message into a responsemessage or a request message. If it is the response message, the messagetype 502 denotes one of a normal message and an abnormal message.Therefore, the message type 502 makes the message to perform itsdedicated function with the message identification 501.

The object identification 503 is a item for classifying the objects byit's type. The type of the object may be a human and an object, thehuman may be classified into a grandfather, a grandmother, a father, amother, a son and a daughter. The object may be classified intofurniture such as a drawer, a table or a sofa, and electronic appliancesuch as a TV, a refrigerator and a washer.

The environmental context data may be a voltage 504, a temperature 505,a luminance 506, a noise 507, an acceleration X 508, an acceleration Y509, an electromagnetic field X 510 and an electromagnetic field Y 512.If additional sensors are added, more items for the environmentalcontext will be added. Each of the environmental context data istransformed to a predetermined format of message to be viewable to acomputer and a human, and stored and managed with the messageidentification 501, the message type 502 and the object identification503. The stored and managed environmental context data is used toprovide the context-aware service in real time.

FIG. 6 shows a storage space for storing an object context in anapparatus of a ubiquitous context agent based on a sensor networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, the storage space for storing the object context isconfigured of a message identification 601, a message type 602, anobject identification 603, a X coordinate 604, a Y coordinate 605, a Zcoordinate 606, a viewable angle 607 and a time 608.

Herein, the message identification 601, the message type 602, the objectidentification 603 and the time 608 denote same information compared tothose items for the environmental context storage space. The Xcoordinate 604, the Y coordinate 605 and the Z coordinate 606 denote athree-dimensional position coordinate generated by converting theposition related data collected from the sensors. The viewable angle 607denotes a direction to the object and is obtained from the positionrelated data collected from the sensors.

The object context storage space stores and manages the positioninformation of the object which is created according to the objectidentification.

FIG. 7 shows a transmitting message in a qualitative state context-awarelayer in a ubiquitous context agent based on a sensor network accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 7, the transmitting message includes information suchas a message identification 701, a message type 702, a qualitativeoperator 703, a moving object identification 704, a static objectidentification 705 and a viewable angel 706.

Herein, the message identification 701 is a value for identifying a typeof message transmitted, and the message type 702 is a value denoting theformat of the message.

The qualitative operator 703 has one of values approach, reside andleave to express the qualitative relation between the objects.

The moving object identification 704 is a value identifying the movingobject that is a target object of the detected qualitative state, andthe static object identification 705 is a value for identifying thestatic object which is a target object of the detected qualitativestate.

The time 706 denotes a time detecting the qualitative state of themoving object and the static object.

FIG. 8 shows a transmitting message in a layer of recognizing an objectrelation in a ubiquitous context agent based on a sensor networkaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the transmitting message includes a messageidentification 801, a message type 802, a relation operator 803, amoving object identification 804, a static object identification 805, astart time 806 and an end time 807.

The message identification 801 is a value for identifying the message tobe transmitted, and the message type 802 is a value denoting the type ofthe message. The relation operator 803 is a value denoting a relationbetween the moving object and the static object for a predetermined timesuch as on, front, rear, left, and right.

The moving object identification 804 is a value to identify a movingobject that is a target object of the detected object relation, and thestatic object identification 805 is a value to identify a static objectthat is a target object of the detected object relation.

The start time 806 includes time information denoting a timeestablishing a relation between the moving object and the static object,and the end time 807 includes time information denoting a timeterminating the relation between the moving object and the staticobject.

The above described methods for ubiquitous context-aware based on thesensor network and for inferring a position context thereof according tothe present invention can be embodied as a program and stored on acomputer readable recording medium. The computer readable recordingmedium is any data storage device that can store data which can bethereafter read by the computer system. The computer readable recordingmedium includes a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM),a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, an optical magnetic disk, andcarrier waves such as data transmission through the Internet Thecomputer-readable recording medium can also be distributed overnetwork-coupled computer systems so that the computer-readable code isstored and executed in a distributed fashion. Also, functional programs,codes, and code segments for accomplishing the present invention can beeasily construed by programmers skilled in the art to which the presentinvention pertains.

As described above, the apparatus and method for ubiquitouscontext-aware based on a sensor network allows the real-time serviceaccording to the object and the context thereof by analyzing andintegrating real world data collected from the sensors.

Furthermore, the apparatus and method for ubiquitous context-awarenessbased on the sensor network allows a computer program to provide acontext-aware service according to the users' intention and context byexpressing the position and the direction information collected from thesensor in real time as the semantic context in a terminological logicformat through hierarchical inference.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present invention. Thus,it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications andvariations of this invention provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

1. An apparatus of an ubiquitous context-aware agent based on a sensornetwork, the apparatus comprising: a sensor platform for collecting dataof real world and transmitting the collected data to a context-awareagent; the context-aware agent for interpreting and integrating the dataof real world from the sensor platform, and storing and managing contextinformation according to the interpreted and integrated data; and aservice provider for receiving the context information from thecontext-aware agent, and automatically performing operations accordingto the received context information, wherein the context-aware agentincludes a context interpreter for receiving the collected data from thesensor platform and interpreting the received data to be viewable to ahuman and a computer; an integrator for receiving an interpreted contextinformation from the context interpreter and integrating the receivedcontext information in a predetermined format; a space manager forreceiving the interpreted context information from the contextinterpreter and detecting users' intention with reference to a relationbetween a users' movement and static objects in a predetermined space; ahome map manager for receiving the interpreted context information fromthe context interpreter, and displaying current states of a real worldto the user using the interpreted context information; a context storagefor storing information transferred from the context integrator, thespace manager and the home map manager, and outputting the storedinformation in response to a request; and a context manager forreceiving the predetermined format of the integrated context informationfrom the context integrator and managing the context information storedin the context storage.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensorplatform includes: a sensor node for collecting the data of real world;and a sensor coordinator for transferring the collected data to thecontext-aware agent.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contextintegrator transfers information related to a service context to theservice provider.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the home mapmanager displays a ubiquitous space in a form of a graphic userinterface (GUI), and the ubiquitous space is displayed to the user byadding, deleting and updating objects in the ubiquitous space accordingto the context.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the serviceprovider receives information related to a context requiring a serviceamong the contexts from the context integrator, receives the contextinformation from the context storage, infers users' intention throughanalyzing a relation between the interpreted context information andstatic objects, and providing an automated service according to theinferred intention.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contextintegrator transfers the context information to the service providerwhen the context information interpreted at the context interpreter isan urgent message.
 7. A method of context-awareness using an ubiquitouscontext-aware agent based on a sensor network comprising: detectingsensing-data related to a real world collected through a sensorplatform, and transforming the sensing-data to context information byanalyzing a meaning of the sensing-data; determining whether a value ofthe transformed context information is in a normal range or not if atype of the transformed context information is an environmental context;setting an urgent flag, storing corresponding context information andtransferring the context information to a service provider if the valueof the transformed context information is not in the normal range;integrating context information, storing corresponding contextinformation, filtering the stored context information and transmittingthe filtered context information to the service provider if the value ofthe transformed context information is in the normal range; analyzing arelation between a moving object and a static object if the type of thetransformed context information is a position context, detecting anintentions of a user according to a position, and determining whetherit's value is in a normal range or not; and integrating contextinformation, storing corresponding context information, filtering thestored context information and providing the filtered contextinformation to the service provider if the value is in the normal range.8. The method of claim 7, wherein in the operation of the integrating,storing, filtering and transmitting, the context information isintegrated and the integrated context information is displayed as a GUI(graphic user interface) format through a home map.
 9. The method ofclaim 7, wherein in order to detect the users' intention in theoperation of the analyzing, detecting and determining, a comparativestate between the static object and the moving object is detected basedon the analyzed position information and direction information, aposition relation between the static object and the moving object isdefined with reference to a time, and a meaning of the movement made bythe moving object is inferred using rules made according tocharacteristics of the static object.
 10. The method of claim 7, whereinin the operation of the integrating, storing, filtering and providing,the context information is integrated and the integrated contextinformation is displayed in a GUI (graphic user interface) formatthrough a home map.
 11. The method of claim 7, further comprisingsetting an urgent flag, storing corresponding context information andproviding the stored context information to the service provider if thevalue is not in the normal range in the operation of the analyzing mdetecting and determining.
 12. A method of inferring a position contextin a context-aware method using an ubiquitous context-aware agent basedon a sensor network, the method comprising: determining a type of anobject through monitoring context information in real time, and creatingan object model and an object area model if the type of the object is astatic object; detecting a qualitative state if the type of the objectis a moving object in the operation of the determining and creating orif the object model and the object area model are created in theoperation of the determining and creating; generating a qualitativestate message based on the detected qualitative state and storing thegenerated qualitative state message; generating an object relationmessage by inferring an object relation using the qualitative statemessage and storing the generated object relation message; andgenerating a semantic model using a stored object relation model,generating a semantic model message according to the generated semanticmodel and storing the semantic model message.
 13. The method of claim12, wherein in the operation of the determining and creating, the typeof the object is determined by monitoring context information in realtime, and if the type of the object is the static object, an objectmodel and an object area model are created with reference to informationrelated to a size of a real static object, and a type and a size of afunctional area of the real static object, where the object modelexpresses the position and the size of the sensed static object and theobject area model expresses the position and the size of the functionalarea of the sensed static object.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein inthe operation of the detecting, the qualitative state is detected bycomparing position information of the moving object transmitted in realtime with reference to the object model and the object area model of thestatic model.
 15. The method of claim 12, wherein in the operation ofthe generating an object relation message and storing the generatedobject relation message, a relation of the moving object and the staticobject is analyzed to determine whether the relation is which one ofqualitative states approach, reside and leave, and the object relationmessage is created to have a predetermined format using one of aposition relation information on, front, rear, left and right.
 16. Themethod of claim 12, wherein in the operation of the generating asemantic model and generating a semantic model message, the semanticmodel is inferred with reference to a semantic model basic knowledgeincluding previously-defined rules based on characteristics of thestatic object by receiving the object relation message, and the semanticmodel message with a predetermined format is created and stored.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the semantic model message is transmitted aservice provider to provide a service to a user in real time accordingto the semantic model message.